📯✨The Nexialist #0202

i’m still here | writing doom | future of humanity institute | cozy tech | recipe for loneliness | invisible epidemic | brain rot | elephant | anti-superstar

Dec 05, 2024

welcome to your weekly batch of fermented brainsparks, the nexialist

hey, you! may this message find you ~~well~~ not so lonely. this month, i’ll be writing to you from sunny brazil. i came here for a work/sprint situation in são paulo which i cannot disclose much, but which i’m quite proud to be part of (also, happy to briefly escape the northern european winter). since my brain needs rest, i’ll cut the intro short and leave you to it. enjoy! 🫀✨

—Rodrigo Turra

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⌖i’m still here

since the trailer for “i’m still here” came out, i couldn’t wait to watch it. for the non-brazilians: it’s based on a book by marcelo rubens paiva (which i had read, so it adds an extra layer of curiosity), and it features fernanda torres, who is a very much loved actress in brazil, daughter of one of our iconic actresses—who is also featured in the film— fernanda montenegro (whose oscar’s for best actress was robbed in 1999 by gwyneth paltrow).

thankfully, i’m in brazil in december, so i had to run to the movies this weekend to finally see it. the movie is set during the military dictatorship in brazil and tells the story of the author’s mother, eunice paiva, and the disappearance of her husband, rubens paiva, by the autoritary forces in 1971. the movie is monumental, and it’s nice to see the well-deserved awards and attention, especially in a time where the far-right keeps growing.

brainsparks: the brazilianization of the world (tn#35)

👨🏻‍💻writing doom

what happens when you’re put in writing room to imagine a sci-fi series where the villain is artificial super intelligence? that is the premise of this short film, writing doom. the exercise is quite fun but ends with a note of desperation and apocalypse. it’s an interesting counterpoint to one of the most utopic view of artificial general intelligence i’ve seen last year at the websummit

singularity net was founded by Dr. Ben Goertzel with the mission of creating a decentralized, democratic, inclusive and beneficial Artificial General Intelligence. An ‘AGI’ that is not dependent on any central entity, that is open for anyone and not restricted to the narrow goals of a single corporation or even a single country.

i think looking at both aspects is important. the corporations are pushing us already the positive sides, but we also need to wonder what could go wrong. it reminded me of protopia futures (tn#27), which presents us with a third healthier path.

brainsparks: self-fulfilling cyberpunk (tn#127), (post-)apocalyptic imaginary (tn#97), risk zones in ethical operating systems (tn#168), protopia futures (tn#27)

🔭the future of humanity institute

this title from the syllabus recommendation got me hooked. “Looking Back at the Future of Humanity Institute: The rise and fall of the influential, embattled Oxford research center that brought us the concept of existential risk.”

At the same time, FHI staff were beginning to publish work on the gravest perils facing humanity, a topic that was not yet an established academic discipline. An FHI workshop brought together hitherto disparate thinkers such as Eliezer Yudkowsky, who went on to become one of the most prominent theorists concerned by superintelligent AI. Bostrom co-edited the 2008 book Global Catastrophic Risk, a collection of essays on threats such as asteroid impacts, nuclear war, and advanced nanotechnology.

well, quite fitting this came to my inbox the same week i watched the ‘writing doom.’ it’s interesting to think an institute that is my age (35) was ahead of its time in futures thinking (as out there as that is), its visionary approach on multidisciplinarity and its policy influence.

brainsparks: polyfuturism (tn#158), ancestral future (tn#112), future creatives report (tn#147)

🥹cozy tech

kyle chayka’s piece for the new yorker is a hit for me. i do love to be in front of my two screens with a coffee/tea/glass of wine, wearing fluffy clothes, maybe with a candle on (specially on these darker days i’m ~~not~~ missing in northern europe). i don’t play cozy games, but i can see how i there is some cozy tech in my life. “The Fantasy of Cozy Tech —From the “cozy gaming” trend to a new generation of A.I. companions, our devices are trying to swathe us in a digital and physical cocoon.”

By contrast, the archetypal cozy figure at her desk, plugged into multiple screens, is an image of loneliness which is also meant to assuage loneliness. #Coziness, in a way, stylizes isolation, making it look desirable. This is an old paradox of the digital world: the same platforms that provide connection also have a way of cutting us off. But #cozygaming suggests that the solution is to surround yourself with yet more gadgets and devices, whether an ergonomic Aeron desk chair, a video projector that turns your wall into a scene from “Harry Potter,” or a new A.I. companion who follows your every move. As Friend’s Avi Schiffmann told me, “I do think the loneliness crisis was created by technology, but I do think it will be fixed by technology.”

brainsparks: cozy futurism (tn#17), fetish, glamour & grammar (tn#75), solarpunk and the end of capitalism (tn#40), non-toxic social media (tn#121)

🤳recipe for loneliness

Brian X. Chen is spot on this nyt piece: “How Tech Created a ‘Recipe for Loneliness’ — Technology and loneliness are interlinked, researchers have found, stoked by the ways we interact with social media, text messaging and binge-watching.”

he points three not-so-healthy-tech-related behaviors that can be linked to the loneliness epidemic we live in, while also offering some possible solutions.

The consensus among scholars was clear: While there was little proof that tech directly made people lonely (plenty of socially connected, healthy people use lots of tech), there was a strong correlation between the two, meaning that those who reported feeling lonely might be using tech in unhealthy ways.
The correlation was rooted in three main behaviors:
On social media apps like Instagram, many fell into the trap of comparing themselves with others and feeling that they were lagging behind their peers.
Text messaging, by far the most popular form of digital communication, could be creating a barrier to authentic connection.
And, perhaps unsurprisingly, some people who felt lonely also exhibited addictive personalities — in this case, to streaming videos — that kept them indoors.

the ending quote from a teenager is quite heart-wrenching: “it feels intrusive to say hello to someone.” quite a wake-up call for someone like me who feels they’re bothering people, or is not so keen on calling people (i am working on that though, i have to say).

brainsparks: social health (tn#179), the new rules of gathering (tn#37), fuel a conversation (tn#178)

👤invisible epidemic

another pudding.cool experience i was saving and now it’s the perfect time to share: 24hrs in an the invisible epidemic by alvin chang. you can follow a day in the life of different individuals, showing for how long people are alone in their day. in the past 20 years, at least in the us, time spent with other people has plummeted.

And, in a cruel twist, loneliness makes us feel more threatened by social interactions – the very thing we need. So we crawl deeper into isolation, creating a cycle of loneliness. Former US surgeon general Vivek Murthy writes: "Over time, this vicious cycle may convince us we don’t matter to anyone and that we’re unworthy of love."

brainsparks: why you are lonely (tn#93), witches and loneliness (tn#98), the life span of loneliness (tn#159)

🧠brain rot

loving this year’s oxford word of the year: brain rot. even though the word’s first record is from 1851 and meaning something quite different, it feels like it’s another signal pointing to this moment of reckoning our digital behaviors.

‘Brain rot’ is defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration”.

the other words that it to the shortlist: demure, dynamic pricing, lore, romantasy, slop. my favorite from the contenders was the last one:

Slop (n.): Art, writing, or other content generated using artificial intelligence, shared and distributed online in an indiscriminate or intrusive way, and characterized as being of low quality, inauthentic, or inaccurate.

brainsparks: liveware & malleability (tn#56)

🐘elephant

i’m loving 070 shake’s releases, and this one is no different. i still need to listen to their new album, petrichor. i love the post-punk EBM vibes of this track, and this part of the lyrics: I can be your elephant. I'll remember everything.

brainsparks: petrichor (tn#192), electronic body music (tn#84)

📯anti-superstar

this duo, haute & freddy, appeared as a suggestion weeks ago on instagram, and i’m loving their releases.

I can’t be for everyone
If I’m made for you
I can’t be every color
And your favorite hue
Keep me under covers
Keep me on the shelf

brainsparks: sever the blight (tn#187), the most creative time ever (tn#183)

see you next week, elephants 🐘✨

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Dimas Henkes

Dec 5

i am obsessed with post punk! recently i discovered Fellini, a brazilian band from the 80s, you should listen their albuns. i love "amor louco" and "3 lugares diferentes". you are going to love it as i loved the song elephant from 070 shake <3

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